ACT Deals of the Year Awards 2023: Small Team winner

This year’s winner in the Small Team of the year category was Equifax’s four-person treasury team, which includes a group treasurer, assistant treasurer and treasury analyst based in Atlanta, and an international treasury manager located in Dublin. In what was a transformational year, the team’s sizeable achievements included implementing a multi-currency notional pool, almost eliminating the use of cheques in North America, and closing a very large acquisition in Brazil.

Transformational projects

Cash management was an important focus for Equifax, with two projects under way to transform cash management activities both in North America and globally. The team is working to eliminated the use of cheques in its US and Canadian business, which not only improved controls and streamlined processes, but is also expected to generate a rebate through the use of virtual cards. Meanwhile, the new multi-currency, multi-entity notional pool based in Dublin has halved idle balances across the company’s international businesses, and improved interest return by 300%.

Other notable achievements included:

• Completing and distributing a revised treasury management policy – a process which involved understanding local banking nuances across 24 countries, and gathering input in order to balance local business needs with the need for standardised controls.
   
• Issuing a $700m five-year bond with a coupon of 5.1%.
   
• Supporting the company’s acquisition of Boa Vista Serviços in Brazil by working with Boa Vista to reduce the number of bank accounts and unwind investments that were outside of Equifax treasury policy.
   
• Starting the process of implementing a global treasury management system for the first time.

The judges were impressed by the team’s close collaboration with tax, accounting, FP&A, controllership, finance and internal audit, as well as with local boards of management including independent directors.

As a result of the team’s efforts, the Equifax treasury has evolved into a global business partner which works closely with local businesses and gains recognition from within the organisation for its positive impact.

What the judges said:

 As well as their work in tackling some challenging projects, what really shone through was that the Equifax team had a clear understanding of business strategy and where the company was going.  

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Clarion Events

The judges also recognised Clarion Events’ impressive two-person treasury team in this category. In just 12 months, the team not only completed a global bank account structure review and transformation project, but also introduced a TMS to the business for the first time, and completed an amendment and extension of existing debt facilities including LIBOR transition.